Steenhuisen: Majority believes country heading in wrong direction
DA leader John Steenhuisen says the majority of South Africans are worried about the pace at which government services are collapsing.
Steenhuisen delivered his alternative State of the Nation Address in Cape Town on Tuesday.
He said load shedding is an example of government's inability to provide basic services.
Steenhuisen said according to the DA's calculations some 70 percent of South Africans believe the country is heading in the wrong direction.
"Look at the country’s trajectory on crime. Look at the trajectory on unemployment. Look at the trajectory on infrastructure maintenance and investment. Look at the trajectory on capital and skills flight.
"Look at the trajectory on load-shedding. Look at the trajectory on poverty. See where we now stand on each of these things and which way the trend is heading.
"The reality for ordinary South Africans as opposed to the pampered ANC elite who have insulated themselves from the government failures they engineered is that life has progressively become harder and harder over the past five years."
He said DA governed areas such as Cape Town and Midvaal show where the country could be heading.
"Alarming as these findings are, they also enable us to pose an important counterfactual question. How would South Africans have felt about the future if the whole country was heading in the same direction as Cape Town, Midvaal, uMngeni, Kouga, and other places with solid DA majorities?"
